Australian Scent’s husband and wife team, Megan and Eddie Enriquez, make the ultimate in skin-pampering body products. Check them out today at BettyConfidential Shop!

-Lucia Peters

It’s a match made in heaven: She’s Australian; he’s American; and together, husband and wife team Megan and Eddie Enriquez are the masterminds behind Australian Scent, an organic skin care company which has, incidentally, become our new favorite thing here at BettyConfidential. Be sure to snag some of these fantastic products for yourself over at BettyConfidential Shop!

Designed with the most sensitive skin types in mind, Australian Scents’ soaps, washes, body products, and hair treatments are chemical-, paraben-, and animal cruelty-free. Great skin; great hair; no worries. What more could a gal ask for?

Megan sat down with us to chat about the story behind Australian Scent, what one product she and Eddie would each want to have if they were stranded on a desert island, and more!

BettyConfidential: Megan, you’re a native Aussie, and Eddie, you’re American. How did the two of you meet?

Megan Enriquez: We met in Malibu, LA at a church we were both going to. We dated long distance for a few years, with me in Australia and Eddie in the US. We eventually got married in Australia and lived there for three years before moving to the States. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year!

BC: Congrats on the anniversary! How did you become makers of organic skincare? Can you tell us a little about the history of Australian Scent?

ME: Eddie developed Psoriasis and Eczema while we were living in Australia. We did some research on what it was and what the body might be craving as a result of it. My background is in nutrition and Eddie’s always been a bit of a health junkie, so it made sense to relate the condition to diet and lifestyle. We discovered that people with those conditions aren’t able to metabolize the fatty acids found in oils, so we came up with the Balm of Gilead moisturizer—a blend of oils and beeswax—to try to heal his skin. We’re not business people, so it didn’t even occur to us to sell it.

After about a year of using it and giving it away, though, and at the urging of our friends and family, we decided to see if anyone would be interested in buying it. So one Saturday I set up a little table out the front of the ANZ Bank in Sydney. I was the only vendor there and we made $50! I was ecstatic! I also had made some soaps, so I brought them along as well. The next week, we made almost $200! Not too many weeks later, we moved to the US and began to sell at one of our local farmer’s markets. It was meant to be a one-off, but people asked for us to return. The success of those two products—the Balm of Gilead and the soaps—and our hope to heal skin organically gave birth to the rest of the line. Happily, Eddie has been cortisone-free since those first few weeks of developing the Balm of Gilead, which is now our number one seller.

BC: Had you ever dabbled in making body products or in other types of design before creating Australian Scent?

ME: I have a degree in nutrition and textiles, so for me, using your hands and imagination is paramount to satisfaction. Once we began to make soaps, I found that it afforded so much opportunity to be creative. Everything became a soap mold: Milk cartons, orange juice bottles, mailing tubes, kids lunch boxes… These days, I look at shipping crates and wonder how I can make them into molds for gigantic slabs of soap! And would it be cool to have seven different layers of color in each bar of soap.